Article by Gabriella Sotiriou and stylist Claire Ferguson

‘Fashion is like eating, you shouldn’t stick with the same menu’ - Kenzo Takaba

This morning marked the devastating passing of Japanese founder of Kenzo, Kenzo Takada as he sadly lost his battle with complications linked to Covid-19. As we mourn this loss, the team here at Haute want to take this moment to celebrate the wonderful life and work of the designer. His was a career brimming with daring and bravery and we should all remind ourselves, in honour of Takada, to take risks, be bold, and as his spokesman has recently said, never stop ‘celebrating fashion and the art of living’.

Takada’s work promised to be golden when he decided to leave his home in Himeji, a town near the city of Osaka, aged 26 to move to Paris despite speaking hardly any French, using compensation money given to him after his apartment building was torn down for the Tokyo Olympics in 1964. He began by creating sketches for various fashion houses but eventually realised that he was destined for bigger and better things. Falling deeply in love with a painting of a jungle - one of the first paintings that he saw in Paris - he began his own small brand named ‘Jungle Jap’. Another bold move saw him purposefully oppose what other designers in Paris were doing, striking out to bring a Japanese influence to European fashion. Eventually his desire to be different front he rest paid off for the designer when Elle magazine featured one of his looks on the cover, sparking a flood of international magazine editors to grab themselves a seat at his show in 1971.

Takada’s brand, eventually reborn under his first name, became recognised across the globe and grew to include a menswear line and sportswear during the 1980s. He eventually sold Kenzo to LVMH in 1993 and retired from fashion in 1999 at the age of 60.

It is difficult to sum up Takada’s impact on fashion but it is safe to say that the fashion world grabbed him and refused to let him go - he only intended to be in Paris for six months but ended up staying there for 56 years. His colourful and joyous prints have become an iconic part of the industry and brought Japanese fashion out of Japan and gave it to the world. His focus on a happy attitude was seen in the his models that would dance down catwalks rather than walk, the shows held in circus tents where he would ride in on an elephant, and his belief that fashion is, as he told the New York Times in 1972, ‘for all the people...It should not be too serious’.

We hope that Kenzo’s attitude to fashion continues as part of his legacy. His sense of collaboration against separation saw the combining of east and west, masculine and feminine, tradition with the new, and that is something that will never go out of style.

As a tribute to Kenzo, our stylist Claire Ferguson has put together a few of her favorite pieces from fashion houses’ collections over the years.

SPRING 2012

The spring 2012 ready-to-wear collection is made famous for being the introduction for Humberto Leon and Carol Lim as creative directors to the Kenzo brand. Their designs in this show absolutely solidified this decision, as the looks were met with gorgeously fitted fabrics and bright colors.

FALL 2005

With heavily embroidered fabrics, bold accessories, and vibrant colors, Kenzo’s fall 2005 ready-to-wear collection serves as an ode to the excellence of former creative director Antonia Marras. It’s 70’s influence is juxtaposed against an international influence of designs. Here are some of the collections highlights.

The Death of Kenzo Takada